Fighting Microplastics: A Public Health Objective for General Practitioners?

Plastic production is overwhelming, worldspread (around 300 millions tons a year) and liable to triple by 2050. Science is currently trying to assess the environmental impact of microplastics: particles that are smaller than 5 mm and end up in oceans, invading thus the marine ecosystems. By 2025, 250 millions tons of accumulated plastic waste are expected to be found in the oceans, althought these oceans provide food, well-being and therapeutics for human beings. Health actors are thus enticed to study with more depth and attention potentials risks of toxicity (additives, contaminants, etc.), sources of microplastics, and the becoming in human body of the thinnest particles (nanoplastics).General practionners could use their public health skills by staying alert and operating a preventive action in the Community (through communication, coordination and cooperation amongst local institutions, eg. school) to use plastics with more relevance. Versatility and multiple practicing (eg. Multidisciplinary group practice, well-followed recommandations…) as well as the maping of territorial networks bring hope for a diffused and assessable action, under control of health authorities.